Isaac K. Beckes

Isaac Kelley Beckes (September 19, 1909 – July 13, 1988) was the president of Vincennes University from 1950 to 1980. Before going to Vincennes he was the executive secretary of the United Christian Youth Movement. He is considered one of the initial leaders of a nationwide educational movement to add occupational programs alongside college transfer programs at two-year post-secondary institutions. He was also the first president of a two-year college to gain an exemption from the North American Interfraternity Conference and have national fraternities established at his school.

Early life Beckes was born in Vincennes, Indiana to Arthur and Julia (Kelley) Beckes. and his Ph.D in 1943 from Yale University. He became an ordained Presbyterian minister. and had become the director of the Young People’s Department of the International Council of Religious Education and the executive secretary of the United Christian Youth Movement. The movement represented forty different Protestant denominations with over ten million youths. He directed the nationwide programs of the member churches’ religious education activities in the United States and Canada.

In 1941 he wrote the book “Young Leaders In Action”. In 1946 he wrote the booklet “Weekday Religious Education : Help or Hindrance to Inter- Religious Understanding".

Vincennes University In 1950, Beckes returned to Vincennes to take over Vincennes University which was the only state supported junior college in Indiana. At the time, enrollment had dropped to 185 students and there was only one building in the downtown area.

When Colonel Eugene C. Wharf died his widow, Mrs. Stella C. Wharf, conveyed the family home, Shadowwood, to the university as a memorial. At the suggestion of Judge Shake, Beckes worked to transfer the property to the Grand Chapter of the Sigma Pi fraternity for use as its national headquarters in August 1961. The fraternity had been founded at the university in 1897. Mrs. Wharf heartily approved of the deal.

In 1964 Beckes appointed Fred Walker to create a journalism program for the college. VU also established its own cable television outlet.

With the growth and accreditation of the school, Beckes looked for other ways to enhance the university. Working with Sigma Pi, he was able to get an exemption from the North American Interfraternity Conference (NIC) in 1964. He was affiliated with the group into the early 1980s.

As the school grew, it began getting line-item funding in the Indiana state budget in 1965. It also grew more complex and Dr. Beckes, along with VU Director of Administrative Services Robert Stryzinski, worked with the legislature to revamp the school’s Board of trustees from twenty-four members to a more manageable number in 1976. That year the school’s budget was over $5 million. In 1964, Beckes was given the Indiana State University Distinguished Alumni Award. On May 17, 1980, he received an Honorary LL.D Degree from Indiana State University - Muncee. In the summer of 1980 he received Sigma Pi Fraternity’s Founders’ Award. In 1981, he was given the Walter A. Davis Citation by the Vincennes University Alumni Association. The Knox County Development Corporation named their industrial park in his honor.